Not sure if posted before, but I thought Feigan wrote an excellent piece on this situation. http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...-his-hypocrisy-ignore-real-problem-precedent/ Feigen: Popovich’s rested stars, Stern’s threat and his hypocrisy ignore real problem, precedent As long as David Stern is in a mood to punish people for doing things they’ve done and he’s ignored before, he should not stop with Gregg Popovich. Popovich sent Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Danny Green home on Thursday because he believed the Spurs would benefit more from resting them than having them play a fourth game in five nights against Miami. He has done this often before, but this time, he sent his stars home on a night the Spurs were playing the reigning champions on TNT, which apparently was a bigger deal in the NBA’s New York offices than the other games San Antonio’s marquee players’ missed. Stern offered an apology and said there would be severe sanctions, though he never seemed to mind all that much when fewer people noticed. Stern’s sudden concern for the NBA’s customers is fine. Those that purchase tickets ought to get the best product that the NBA can bring them. Since Duncan, Ginobili, Parker and Green were healthy, the Spurs could have and should have given a better show than having his junior varsity overachieve its way to a surprisingly close game. (Though it really is amazing that Popovich could have those guys ready to play that well). Just because Popovich has the right to do what he considers best for his team doesn’t mean what he chose was the right thing to do. Beyond the obvious hypocrisy – or at least, inconsistency – of Stern looking the other way so often before but acting indignant now (on the 75th anniversary of Casablanca, we can say he was “shocked, shocked” to learn this is going on), if the NBA is now so concerned with offering the best product possible, shouldn’t the guy that scheduled the Spurs to play four games in five nights while the Heat were off since Saturday face ‘severe sanctions?’ For that matter, every time a team plays a back-to-back, or four games in five nights or six games in eight or nine, the product is not as good as it could be. Every time one team sits home practicing and resting and waiting while another faces a disadvantageous schedule, customers do not get the best possible product. Fans are expected to accept this as part of the deal when they buy tickets, just as they must accept that players can be hurt or simply have bad games. But just as they should not have to accept healthy players staying home, they should not have to accept having one team at less than its best because of the schedule and coaches should not have to weigh whether their team would be better off exchanging a loss for rest. The night off probably would not impact his stars’ late-season vitality as much as Popovich’s determination to limit their playing time throughout the season. Arguments can be made that he could have staggered their days off, rather than give all four players the night off on the same night. Or he could have rested them against Orlando, won that game, and had a better chance to beat the Heat, too. All of that, however, is clearly under the category of coaching decisions, which fall from the role of the commissioner. The commissioner, excluding his brief dalliance as the de facto owner of the Hornets monitoring his GM’s work, is charged with the business of the league, not the competitive decision making of any one team. He could demand that coaches do their best to win each game, but he cannot prevent them from resting players by claiming minor injuries. Instead, he ought to do everything he can to keep coaches from feeling the need to weigh their teams’ needs against the good of the league and the sport. Stern claimed contrition about every player in the NBA sitting out every game prior to Christmas last season, but he still deemed it necessary to take that short-term loss last season in the name of what he believed to be long-term good. Arguments can still be made about the benefits of the lockout, but he had earned the confidence of NBA owners that he was doing the right thing for their businesses. Popovich has often been apologetic when he has chosen to sit players, but has deemed it necessary to sacrifice in the short-term to improve his team’s chances long-term. Valid points can be made about whether a night off in November can really help in May or June, but his employer expects one of the best coaches ever to make those decisions. This time, however, he rested players on a night the Spurs were playing on TNT, which apparently is more important to the NBA than all the previous times he has rested players. He was honest about it. He could have said that a strangely communicable strain of plantar fasciitis had run through his starting lineup. He could have acted like coaches that tank for better lottery position, a practice much more common over the years in Stern’s league than coaches benching healthy players for rest’s sake. Commissioner-in-waiting Adam Silver endorsed Popovich’s strategy – or at least his right to exercise it as he sees best – last season when he told USA Today: “Strategic resting of particular players on particular nights is within the discretion of the teams.” Silver was speaking in the context of the lockout-condensed schedule, but the Spurs have been playing that sort of schedule in November. If Popovich had a right to rest players last season, he would have that right this season. That’s why Stern’s severe sanctions solution ignores the actual problem. Popovich sat his stars because of a schedule he believed would hurt his team long term. Remedy the issues with the schedule and there would not be a need to keep coaches from solving them their way. The NBA should do all it can to remove the sort of stretches the Spurs have faced lately. The league will never shorten the 82-game season, but it could shorten the preseason by a week to start the regular season a week earlier and then extend the regular season by two weeks. Spreading those 82 games over an additional three weeks (four weeks if the union would agree to begin camp a week earlier) and taking out TNT’s exclusive Thursday window would allow the schedule makers to remove the bulk of back-to-backs. Do that and Popovich and others would not feel they have to sit healthy players. As an added benefit given Stern’s concern, customers would more often get a better product. Then, rather than going back to looking the other way when convenient, he can start working on coaches that tank for draft lottery position. Actually, when the Hornets – the eventual lottery winners — benched all of their stars (relatively speaking), some at halftime, in the final game last season and scored seven fourth-quarter points in that loss, who was running that team as de facto owner? Can Stern bring severe sanctions to Stern?
My take ... if the Spurs played the Bobcats, or a non-televised game against a non-contender, Stern wouldn't give a rat's ass about it.
Pop's resume speaks for itself. His goal is to win a championship. He is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest basketball coach ever. If he wants to rest his players, fine. He's the coach, that's his decision to make. I don't hate Stern as much as a lot of you do, but he went too far this time. This league has become more focused on image and money rather than the game itself. Pathetic.
So I guess a lot of people on here are fine with coaches sending players home from now on if they don't intend on playing them. Hope it catches on. And let's see the ramifications with the public. Like I said, resting players by benching them is different from resting players by sending them home. That's between the players and owners actually. Because they are INJURED. That's a legitimate reason. But they would still go to home games if possible, for the morale of the team. Like I have said, I have NEVER seen a coach sending his players home b/c they won't be playing. Pop has a lot of coaches under him and learning from him throughout the league. If this trend catches on, we are going to have players being sent home left and right b/c they need the "rest." Ok, let's wait until the Heat send LBJ/Wade/Bosh home b/c they find the travel "too exhausting" and needs the rest. Or the Lakers with Dwight/Kobe/Nash/Pau. I would love to see this trend happening. 1) You're supposed to play with intensity the ENTIRE game. The Heat only tried hard late in the game, same way they played vs the Cavs the game prior. I don't know if you played competitive sports before, but the level of intensity isn't the same when you know your level of competition isn't as good. It's just a natural instinct. 2) Bosh didn't come off the bench in the 4th till 3 minutes left. That answered your question? Lebron didn't start attacking the rim till late in the 4th? That answered your question? 3) Super teams always have been the case. What do you call those Lakers/Boston teams in the 80s? Suddenly now they're called superteams?? What do you call our team with Hakeem/Drexler/Barkley/Pippen?
I couldn't agree more. Stern is a joke. Same reason why when Miami or the Lakers come to Houston, ticket sales at the box office go up 300%. But that's not a disservice to the fans right? (sarcasm)
You know ticket sales aren't controlled by Stern right? That's controlled by the team based on the buying public. Price goes up b/c of the buying public's demand. People want to see the Lakers/Miami moreso than the Bobcats. That works in baseball/football also. That also works in other things.
I couldn't care less if the Heat choose not to have LBJ/Wade/Bosh travel with their team if those guys aren't playing. That's never even crossed my mind as an issue.
You are right. I completely agree with this. I was pissed when his announcement came out. It's frustrating for me to have the actions of a p***y coach like Popovich overshadowed by the actions a douchebag commish. I'm also frustrated that so many Rockets fans apparently like the Spurs and defend them. It's like being a Oilers fan in the 90s and having a Houstonian tell you they respect the Cowboys because they are such a class organization and well run. It makes me want to punch you!!! Thus, anyone who backs Popovich ducking the Heat is a p***y.
You don't get it. Maybe if you weren't so focused on calling Pop a "p***y", you'd see the bigger picture. People aren't defending the Spurs, per se. They're defending a coach's right to determine his lineups.
except the spurs, who apparently are loved by fans, typically drive ratings into the ground and the heat, who apparently are everything fans find wrong about basketball, get superb ratings. people's eyes and wallets often don't back up the things they write and say they believe. stern knows this well and acts accordingly. the heat weren't trying at all until about 5 minutes left. the game wasn't close because the spurs role players were so good, it was close because the heat stopped caring about the game. which is precisely why stern didn't wait to find out what happened in the game to decide to punish the spurs. once the spurs rested everybody and made everybody else - players and fans alike - stop caring about the game, that was the important moment, not the end of the game. sponsors don't want to hear "hey, it was a close game" after some percentage of the audience tuned the game out as soon as they heard the stars were resting and thus assumed a non-competitive game or one which was close only because the heat would not care and play uninspired/lackadaisically. they want to hear that the league is putting its best foot forward and doesn't have coaches "making points" about the schedule. i know everyone's instinctive reaction is to hate anything stern does but the "yeah, way to stick it to 'em" reactions to popovich seem hilarious. what did he stand up to? wanting to win games? wanting to play his best players? playing a full 82 game schedule as teams have been doing for 6 or so decades? it's not like stern was trying to stick it to the spurs or has some vendetta against them (the amare suspension that basically gave the spurs a title would seem to indicate otherwise). the schedule just broke one way. if the spurs want to not play their players in important games for the league, then the league, in the spirit of trying to please its fans, might punish them. if the spurs are ok with that, then cool. if peter holt, in his partnership with the league and the other owners, is ok with that, then cool. if he doesn't want to get fined, he should tell popovich to not make points about the schedule. if popovich doesn't want to cooperate and holt doesn't want to get fined, he should get a new coach. i suspect holt doesn't want a new coach and will either be cool with occasional fines or will insist pop not be so blatant in the future.
Like A_3PO and I said, it is frustrating this conversation went from Popovich being a p***y for ducking the Heat to what Stern did. btw: y'all are blowing this out of proportion. The fine is not going to change anything. It is just symbolic. You are fining a billion dollar company $250k. Think about it. Please. Relax people. It's like fining Lebron $5k for flopping. And make no mistake...Pops did not rest his team. He was making a statement to the league, and he actually asked for the fine. It is his plan to get this attention. No need to defend him. The only other explanation is he was a p***y for ducking the Heat and Lebron.
No, it's not at all. You are making up this up. Unless you can show me a peer reviewed psychology paper that people do not try hard in competitive sports against certain levels of competition, you have absolutely no claim to say they "didn't try hard". And even if that were the case, they didn't try hard for the entire game until the final moments of the game where the game was decided within the last minute? You expect me to believe that? At no point during the first 2 quarters, or half time, or third quarter, did they step up their intensity until the final moments? And who is to say this isn't a result of changing game strategies instead of "slacking off". It's common strategy for players to attack the rims late the 4th quarter to draw fouls, it says nothing about "not trying hard". 3) Super teams always have been the case. What do you call those Lakers/Boston teams in the 80s? Suddenly now they're called superteams?? What do you call our team with Hakeem/Drexler/Barkley/Pippen?[/QUOTE] Alright you shouldn't go further into this topic. You just attempted to contrast the formation of Lebron/Wade/Bosh to the formation of Hakeem/Drexler/Barkley. If you think those two situations are comparable, you should do a little research. Start off with their age when they decided to play together.
I get what you are saying. You respect order and can't understand arbitrary enforcement of rules. You seem German to me. And I say that with the utmost respect to you and Germans; (my company is German and I chose it partly for that reason). But, think about it. Billion dollar company. $250k fine. Being frustrated that a "rule" was arbitrarily enforced in this case (which I agree with) is like getting upset that police hand out jay walking tickets arbitrarily. The "rule" is used in a symbolic way when it can make a statement worth more than the fine. Hell, Popovich used the media too. He pretty much asked for the fine and this media bonanza to make a statement, too. no?
You just don't get it. What did the Spurs do wrong? Every team in the league has benched healthy players when they felt it was in their best interest. Why punish the Spurs now? And more importantly, you have to consider the potential ramifications. The league should have absolutely no authority over a coach's roster decisions, but apparently, Stern feel entitled to it. Where does it end? So you believe that it's ok to unfairly fine wealthy organizations b/c they can afford it? That's ridiculous.
you don't get it. The Rule is applied arbitrarily, yes. So what. It won't change much. The flopping fines are the same, except for the fact individuals get embarrassed by the video clips of them flopping. That's so awesome...but I digress. Relax. ain't going to happen Do you get hugely upset knowing that the no jaywalking rule is arbitrarily enforced? I think you are trying too hard to win an argument, that I don't really even care about, because it is not worth getting upset over, because the fine is so miniscule to a billion dollar company. All we are talking about is symbolism and it's affect on behavior. Pops probably scored more symbolic points over the league than Stern did over the coaches. I believe this actually opens the door for another coach to test Stern. And THEY SHOULD. This is a prime opportunity for all coaches to protest the absurd NBA schedule. But they won't. You know why? Because their Owners will fire them. Stern is speaking for the Owners on this. TV revenue and not pissing off TNT and the sponsors like Pops did is worth more than a coach. Coaches are replaceable...TV contracts...not so much. Don't be so naive. Pops asked for this, because he wants to make a statement. Don't treat him like an unfairly punished dog. Stern is applying a rule that most of the owners agree with...because TNT and the sponsors furiously yelled at them.
What "Rule" are you referring to? "Disservice to the league"? Actions "contrary to the best interests of the NBA"? The Spurs fielded a lineup that almost beat the reigning NBA champs and were fined $250k. Meanwhile, the Bobcats were down by 50 against the Thunder, and it's business as usual. There is no rule. Not at all. I'm not bothered by the arbitrary enforcement of rules. I'm bothered by the arbitrary punishment for breaking rules that don't exist. There really is no argument. The vast majority of people support the Spurs. You just don't care if they were unfairly punished b/c they can afford to pay the fine. And honestly, that's a despicable point of view. It disgusts me that we both support the same team. Yep, I'm sure the owners love seeing Stern abuse his power and unfairly levying fines against organizations. I regard Pop as an unfairly punished coach. The coach should have the full authority to choose his ow
The game being on national TV should have nothing to do with the fine or the Spurs decision. But those decisions are factored in and don't surprise anybody. When you see a crazy spread at the end of the year against Miami or San Antonio and they already have the 1st spot locked up then you have to either risk that they will rest their stars (or they've already announced they will before the spread is released). What's more wrong? My implication or Stern telling teams he controls the line up card?
That's not the point. This is not about the Spurs or the Heat or a single team. My point is if EVERY SINGLE COACH in the NBA starts sending their players home to "rest," do you think that's a good thing to do? Exactly. If he wants to rest his team, do it like what other coaches do. Have them sit their ass on the bench and bite their fingernails or something. I'm sure traveling on an airplane then drive their Porsches to the arena then whistling for 2 hours on the bench is so damn tiring.
